Trend: Rocking Rouge

Red is one colour that gives me an awful lot of trouble. I recently bought a pair of red leather trousers from a great vintage shop which after wearing them once became the property of a great charity shop. In short they were a bit too much – even for me. I love the colour red but on its own but it can just be too overpowering and the focus of any given outfit, especially in the case of men. On that subject I should also note that a friend of mine was yelled at on no less that three separate occasions the other weekend in Istanbul – maybe that is one city that is just not ready for a man in a dark red suit! But I digress.

The trick to building red into a street credible environment seems to be to pair the red right back with black or else restrict the red to detail or accessories. But you would be surprised by how much of a focus something as supposedly inconspicuous as a red belt can be in a look – tricky territory indeed.

In the case of Japan there is a real trend for dark red right now, I have seen so many looks with red as their focus and loads of the 109-2 and biker brands are getting in on the action. The images above are gathered from my key brands, Sabgreed, Fuga, Juvenile Delinquent, Share Ones Fate, etc are all putting out bolder red than ever before for this season and I for one am really pleased about it.

So good luck with your rouge. For me I will be restricting myself to single flashes of red in my outfits and where possible keeping that red as close to crimson as I can. Who knows, maybe one day I might venture back into the territory of red trousers, wish me luck…

That red bag is seriously fierce. I want it. I’ve seen a few red leather jackets but passed on them all due to worries about how they could be worn with the rest of my clothes. I wanted to grab that crazy Julius knock-off Tornado Mart did but I missed the sale.

Tell me about it – shame the bag is from Juvenile Delinquent and hence a bit pricey, but knowing their stuff it is usually worth it. Oh and the lining of JD bags tends to be even more over the top than the bags themselves.
I am with you on the topic of red leather jackets as well, I saw a red suede one that managed to tone down the element of overwhelming redness, but it just failed to tempt me to invest.